TEXAS AG: BUSINESSES THAT PERRY VISITED CAN STAY SECRET

Governor’s office says it doesn’t want to tip off other states

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s office does not have to release the names of businesses he courted when he came to California earlier this year.

The Texas Attorney General’s office informed U-T San Diego last week that the businesses that heard Perry’s pitch to move to the Lone Star State when he visited San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange County in February will remain confidential. The U-T had requested the list of businesses under the Texas Public Information Act. But Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office stood by the Governor’s Office’s initial denial on the grounds that releasing the names could tip off other states to approach the same businesses.

The governor’s office in March denied the U-T’s initial public records request, but also asked for a formal opinion from the attorney general’s office, which backed the governor in a May 20 letter to Perry’s office, copied to the U-T.

“We find you have demonstrated release of the information you have highlighted would cause specific harm to the governor’s office’s marketplace interests in a particular competitive environment,” said the letter, written by Kristi Wilkins, assistant attorney general.

Perry uses the public Texas Enterprise Fund to deliver cash incentives to court corporations to move to Texas. Petco, a San Diego-based company, accepted $3.1 million from the fund to expand in San Antonio in 2010.

The Texas governor has continued to make repeated visits to California to tout the state as the place to expand: Texas charges no personal or corporate income tax, while most California corporations other than financial pay 8.84 percent in corporate income tax.

ResMed, a medical device maker, is the only San Diego-based business confirmed to have listened to Perry’s pitch when he visited San Diego in December. But ResMed’s board of directors voted in February not to expand in Texas in the near future.

Perry said in a February interview with the U-T that he may visit San Diego again by June.